Kyrillos III of Cyprus

His Beatitude Kyrillos III of Cyprus was Archbishop of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus and the ruling hierarch of the Church of Cyprus from 1916 to 1933. He was conciliatory with the British rule on Cyprus.

Life

Abp. Kyrillos III was born in 1859 in the village of Prastio on Mesaoria on the island of Cyprus. He was later given the nicknamed Kyrilloudin (little Kyrillos) to differentiate him from Kyrillos II Papadopoulos, his predecessor as archbishop. At the age of 13 he became a monk at St. Panteleimon monastery in the village of Myrtou near Kyrenia, Cyprus. He studied philosophy and theology at the University of Athens. In 1895, he was elected Bishop of Kyrenia.

After the death of Abp. Sophronius III of Cyprus in 1900, Kyrillos III came into strong disagreement with another Bp. Kyrillos, Kyrillos II Papadopoulos, who preceded him as archbishop. Bp. Kyrillos III was more amenable to the British presence on Cyprus and had disputed Kyrillos II Papadopoulos' initial claim to the see of Cyprus, resulting in the see remaining vacant. Their differences intensified after the British instituted a law in 1907 regulating the election of the archbishop, thus involving the patriarchates of Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Alexandria before Kyrillos II was elected to the vacant see, in 1908, as Archbishop of Cyprus. Their disagreement was finally reconciled after the Greek government intervened in February 1910.

After the death of Kyrillos II in 1916, Kyrillos III was elected Archbishop of Cyprus on November 11, 1916. His opponents during the election were Bishop of Kition Meletios, Bishop of Kykkos Kleopas, and archimandrite Makarios Myriantheas, who later became Archbishop Makarios II of Cyprus.

More moderate than his predecessor Kyrillos II, he was accused of being too sympathetic with the British colonial rulers of Cyprus. Also, he was elected as one of the six Christian legislators in the Cypriot Parliament.

Abp. Kyrillos died on November 16, 1933 of pleurisy. In March 2010 his grave in Nicosia was reported vandalized.